Last year, the Toronto Blue Jays got an American League MVP effort out of a player who earned his 2015 salary from arbitration proceedings. After acquiring their third baseman in a trade with Oakland, the Jays reached an agreement to pay Josh Donaldson $4.3MM for his services right around this time last year.
The then 29-year-old led the American League in a number of major statistical offensive categories. His intense style of play quickly became a fan favorite at Rogers Centre and undoubtedly helped the city land their first postseason baseball experience in over two decades time.
Major League Baseball is unique in its process for settling contracts through a court-like proceeding with a third party arbitrator working over the details amongst the other two parties involved –the club and a player/his agent.
Courtesy of sportingcharts.com, the credentials to be eligible for arbitration are defined as such:
In baseball, a player is eligible for salary arbitration if they’ve had less than six years of service and A) without a contract for the next season and B) has been tendered a contract by his current team by the deadline and C) has been on a major league roster for at least 3 seasons or D) has been on a major league roster for 2 years but has accumulated service time that has placed him in the top 22 percent in this class of players.
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